On Monday night, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) "held a rally in New York's Washington Square Park which drew a crowd of 20,000 people," Stephen Colbert said on Tuesday's Late Show, "only 3,000 of which were there to score weed." Warren "pledged to take on government corruption," called President Trump "corruption in the flesh," took a subtle jab at former Vice President Joe Biden, and said she isn't afraid and you shouldn't be either, Colbert recapped. He used Yoda to amplify that last point.
Warren was also Colbert's main guest Tuesday, and he asked her about the rally and the four hours of selfies she took afterward. "You know, the selfies are the most fun," she said. "It means for every single person who stays in that line — and look, somebody waited four hours, you know, the guy at the end — but it's about power," a bit of proof that the other person in the selfie is also in the fight to reclaim the U.S. government.
Warren said she wasn't talking about Biden with her line about not being afraid of supporting a candidate you believe in. "The way I see this is these really are scary times," she said. "It's scary times because Donald Trump is truly a terrible president — not just bad, terrible." Colbert asked Warren if she isn't also looking to the past; Warren retold her story France Perkins and the creation of the U.S. safety net in the 1930s and '40s, then how corporations captured Washington in the 1970s and '80s. "It's not just Donald Trump — yeah I get it, he is corruption in the flesh," she said, "but the truth is, a country that elects a Donald Trump is already in serious trouble."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Colbert tried valiantly to get Warren to say whether middle class taxes would go up under her Medicare-for-All plan, but she would only explain how "costs" would go down for "hard-working families." In the lightening round, Colbert asked Warren about Iran versus Saudi Arabia and if she agrees with Trump on anything — she does. Watch below. Peter Weber
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.